Maybe it's the snow. Maybe it's because Brewers players are now filing into Maryvale Park in Phoenix. Maybe I just want to be thinking about baseball today.
So I'm wondering: what would need to happen for Prince Fielder to sign with the Brewers in 2011?
My sometimes colleague Drew Olson said when I posed him this question, "Dream on." And I know he's right. But since hope springs eternal, here are four scenarios, in order of likelihood that could bring Prince back next year.
- Prince gets badly injured: Like broken hip in three places injured. The kind of injury in which his career is actually in doubt, and a new team wouldn't pay crazy money on a guy who might not be able to report to Spring Training next year.
- Pujols gets signed by the only team willing to spend crazy money: There will be one more highly sought-after free agent first baseman this fall, and Albert Pujols should be the guy who fetches more money than Fielder. Not a ton of teams can afford to pay a player $200 million over five years. Fielder might look at himself in the mirror and decide that the Brewers opening salvo of $100 million isn't chump change.
- Prince has a train wreck of year: Coming off a disappointing 2009, imagine if Prince bats .212 and hits 10 home runs. Maybe he has a nagging injury and gains 50 pounds. Maybe he has a bad attitude and has some off-the-field altercations or punches an ump. It's possible that elite teams find him to be too much of a risk.
- The Brewers win the World Series: I don't really think this kind of stuff matters anymore, but let's just say the Brewers go on an absolute tear and win it all. Maybe, just maybe, Prince feels a little loyalty to the team that developed him into the player he is today. But probably not.
Andy is the president, publisher and founder of OnMilwaukee. He returned to Milwaukee in 1996 after living on the East Coast for nine years, where he wrote for The Dallas Morning News Washington Bureau and worked in the White House Office of Communications. He was also Associate Editor of The GW Hatchet, his college newspaper at The George Washington University.
Before launching OnMilwaukee.com in 1998 at age 23, he worked in public relations for two Milwaukee firms, most of the time daydreaming about starting his own publication.
Hobbies include running when he finds the time, fixing the rust on his '75 MGB, mowing the lawn at his cottage in the Northwoods, and making an annual pilgrimage to Phoenix for Brewers Spring Training.
